PAUL: BEFORE AND AFTER

Galatians 1:13-24 - 13 You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.

        18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days; ¹⁹but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother. ²⁰In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie! ²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia,²²and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; ²³they only heard it said, ‘The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.’ ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

To his readers Paul relates this summary                                      
of the years before and after he became,
having been a persecutor zealously,
an apostle with a passion to proclaim
to the Gentiles the good news of Jesus. He
wants the churches of Galatia to recall
he received from Jesus his authority.
Here’s the story, in poetic form, from Paul:

“Of my former way of life you all have heard,
how intensely I did persecute the church,
and for all who were believers in the Word
how as far as to Damascus I did search.
Beyond many Jews of my age I advanced,
so extremely zealous for the faith was I.
The traditions of my forebears were enhanced
by my efforts to cause this new faith to die.
But when God, who had set me apart from birth
and had called me by his grace, chose to reveal
Jesus to me, so that I throughout the earth
might proclaim him to the Gentiles, no appeal
did I make to any person.  Nor did I
consult even the apostles, but I went
to Arabia at once, then by and by
I revisited Damascus. I had spent
about three years, when I felt that I should go
to Jerusalem and visit Peter there.
During fifteen days with Peter I saw no
other leaders except James, and I declare
before God that what I’m writing is no lie.
Later on I went to Syria and then
to Cilicia. Now, in Judea I
wasn’t known by sight to all the churches. When
the report reached them that he who had before
been a persecutor of the church was now
preaching what he’d been opposing heretofore,
they praised God because of me. This I avow.”